On the 27th of July this year, Ghanshyam Pardesi, the legal correspondent of
the Statesman, Delhi wrote a letter to Supreme Court Justice P.N. Bhagwati,
informing him that several Naxalite prisoners in Tamil Nadu had not yet been
released on parole, even after serving more than ten years of their life terms.
He also added that these prisoners had been systematically tortured with the
specific intent of damaging their neurological systems so as to incapacitate
them for any future political activity in life.

Pardesi backed
up his information with a number of affidavits, including two from 56 year old
KaliaPerumal, and Valluvan, his son. Justice Bhagwati accepted the letter as
a writ position on the 31st of July (4252 of 1981), and asked for medical reports
on the state of the prisoners by the 10th of August. When these were duly presented,
it was obvious that some of the allegations were indeed correct, and the Court
ordered immediate medical treatment for the identified prisoners. In the course
of passing direc-tions, Justice Bhagwati observed that "the right to live
with human dignity and the entitlement to the exercise of the fundamental rights
under Art. 21, were rights which the prisoners, excepting the fact of their
captivity, also enjoyed as any other citizen in the country."

Since Pardesi's
writ petition raised more funda-mental issues about jail conditions and reforms,
the Court asked counsels Kapil Sibal, Gobinda Mukboty, S. Ganesh and M. Mudgal,
to formulate propositions as to how best questions relating to treatment of
prisoners, to facilities in regard to communication with the outside world,
and to uniformity in granting remissions and paroles should be examined by the
Court. The hearings are to begin in February 1982, and may well lead to a comprehensive
review of the rules and regulations concerning prisoners, including Naxalites
all over the country.

In his affidavit
attached to Pardeshi's petition, Valluvan (32) reconstructed for the first time
for the Court the history of the treatment meted out to him, members of his
family (altogether seven) and to other Naxalites convicted for various offences.
He wrote: "In 1972, 950 Naxalite undertria!s were brought from West Bengal
to Cuddalore Central Prison in Tamil Nadu, as the prisons there were overcrowded.
No one can deny that the culture and food habits of Tamil Nadu are different
from that of Bengal. Those who made arrangements for bringing those comrades
from several hundred miles away should have made arrangements for the supply
of the kind of food they were used to. Instead of doing this, the prison autho-rities
supplied them the worst kind of gruel which the poorest in Tamil Nadu living
below the poverty line are forced to take in order to exit."

The Bengali prisoners
decided on a protest hunger strike. The authorities decided to teach them a
lesson. The usual procedure (at least in West Bengal) before a lathi charge
is to hoot a siren : those prisoners who wish to surrender go back to their
cells and shut the doors. Those who want to resist remain outside. The 950 under-trials
on that day decided to go back to their cells. The jail authorities locked the
cells first, then opened one cell after another, dragged out the prisoners one
by one for "special treatment". No one knows how many bones were fractured
that day.

Besides this beating,
Valluvan adds that since ninety per cent of the Bengal prisoners were young
men, and graduates, the prison authorities forced them to homosexual acts with
other life prisoners from Tamil Nadu.

In October 1972,
the jail authorities in Tiruchi prison let loose another vicious attack. The
reason this time was a hunger strike demanding treatment of prisoners according
to jail rules. After nine days of fasting the authorities tried to force-feed
the strikers, and when they encountered resistance, there was another lathi
charge. Kaliaperumal, Gurumurthy, Thyagarajan (all sentenced to death), Valluvan,
Das, Kuttappan, Sellapan, Krishna Pillai (lifers) and under-trials Chandrasekharan,
Sivadas and Rahmohan, all landed in hospitals. Kaliaperumal sustained head injuries
and his condition became serious, and most people thought Valluvan was dead.

In 1974, prisoners
like Valluvan, Sivadas, Rajmohan and Chandrasekaran were once again on a hunger
strike against disgusting prison conditions, particular-ly food. When their
condition deteriorated, the dis-trict medical officer intervened, and stopped
the strike by giving them assurances. The jail superintendent hardly bothered
about it all, so that the DMO in ex-asperation wrote a complaint about this
in the Journal. In the same year, in the same prison, the Medical Offi-cer,
Dr Andiappan was beaten up by the jail superin-tendent, Mr. Cheralathan and
a case fled against him, because he tried to interfere in these matters in favor
of the prisoners. Towards the middle of 1974, a new-jail authority was posted
to Vellore, but there was no change there either. Prisoners Valluvan, Chinnaswamy,
Chandrasekaran and Rajmohan resorted to a relay fast for four months, which
lasted from Dec. 21. to April 21, 1975, the longest such attempt in Tamil Nadu
jails.

The Deputy Inspector
General of Prisons visited the jail twice during the fast, but did not either
attempt to meet them or stop them. Emboldened, the jail authorities became violent
and towards the middle of April (1975) pelted the strikers' heads with stones
Sivadas was taken to hospital in a delirious condition. Valluvan stopped his
fast only after his mother ob-tained a visiting card through a DMK friend of
hers and met him.

A neurologist who
examined Kaliaperumal in 1976 recorded in the Journal that he should be sent
to a hospital, but the Q Branch police were able to pre-vent this.

In 1978, Kaliaperumal,
Tamilarasan, Muniraj, Ramakrishnan and Radhakrishnan attempted to es-cape for
Tiruchi jail. After they were caught (about a dIstance of a kilometre from the
prison), they faced the usual brutality : Tamilarasan was unconscious for two
weeks. They were tried in the Tiruchi Sessions Court. for the escape attempt.
During the trial, the autho-rities themselves were forced to confess about the
conditions under which prisoners live. The court observ-ed in its judgment that
the prisoners were indeed treated cruelly and that this would only isolate them
further from the social mainstream. The judge also condemned the disgusting
habit of serving food in pots used for carrying phenyl for the toilets.

Ananthanayagi's
case beggars description. When she was arrested on trumped up charges together
with the Kaliaperumal family, she was 52 years old. On the prison records she
was given a younger age so that a review board would not agree to her release
on the grounds of age after reaching 55. Today she is 63. Prison authorities
in a similar manner never record the proper weight of a prisoner on his entry
into jail; it is understated, so that the impact of prison life on his health
cannot easily traced.

The callousness
and sadism of the jail and govern-ment authorities are routinely directed at
all lifers in Tamil Nadu. On the 4th of September this year, Mr. P.V. Ganesan,
Duty Counsel, Central Prison, Coim-batore, wrote the following letter which
appeared in the Indian Express:

"Under Section
433 -A of the Criminal Procedure Cede, notwithstanding anything contained in
section 432 Cr. P.C. where a sentence of imprisonment for life is one of the
punishments provided by law or where a sentence of death imposed on a prisoner
has become commuted under Section 433 into one of im-prisonment for life, such
person shall not be released from prison unless he has served at least 14 years
of imprisonment.

"In view of
the judgment of the Supreme Court in Maru Ram Vs Union of India (A .1.R. 1980
S.C. Page 2142) the prisoner having been convicted before Section 433-A Cr.
P.C. came into force goes out of the pale of the provision and as such he is
entitled to enjoy such benefits which accrued to him before Section 433-A Cr.
P.C. entered the statute book. This means that every person who has been convicted
before December 18, 1978, shall be entitled to the benefits accruing to him
from the remission scheme or short sentencing projects as if Section 433-A did
not stand in the way. In view of the said judgment of the Supreme Court, the
mandatory minimum of 14 years of actual imprison-ment will not operate against
prisoners whose cases were decided by the respective trial courts before December
18, 1978 when Section 433-A Cr. P.C. came into force.

"Prisoners,
whose convictions by the Courts in the first instance were entered prior to
the above date are clearly entitled to immediate consideration for prema-ture
release by the respective State Governments on the strength of remissions already
earned by them. It would, therefore, follow that the prisoners having been convicted
to imprisonment for life before the date on which Section 433-A Cr. P.C. came
into force, their cases for premature release before the expiry of the full
period of 14 years should necessarily be consi-dered by the respective State
governments immediately and necessary further orders passed in the interest
of justice

"In the Central
Prison at Coimbatore, as the sole Duty Counsel appointed by the Tamil Nadu Legal
Aid and Advice Board, High Court Buildings, Madras, I have come across instances
where about 26 life convicts have been undergoing imprisonment for periods even
exceeding 16! years and 250 life convicts suffering imprisonment for well over
10 years. All such prisoners, in view of the said decision of the Supreme Court
are clearly entitled to immediate consideration by the respective State Governments
for their release on the strength of earned remissions and entitled to claim
releases from prison forthwith."

The Supreme Court
once observed that "the op-portunity to move, mix, mingle, talk, share
company. with co-prisoners if substantially curtailed would be a violation of
Article 21 of the Constitution unless the curtailment has the backing of law."
There is only an unwritten law at the moment that justifies the ill-treatment
of prisoners by uniformly categorizing them as Naxalites. The procedure has
been started from 1970. Here is a secret Tamil Nadu Government direc-tive to
jail authorities regarding censorship of letters from Naxalite prisoners :

"In view of
the serious nature of offence in which the Naxalite prisoners are involved,
adherence to the path of violence, misbehavior, the incoming and out-going letters
of Naxalite prisoners should be censored by an officer of the CID-Q Branch and
objectionable matter withheld before they are sent to the addresses so that
this arrangement will virtually eliminate the possibility of code words communication
between the outsiders and Naxalite prisoners."

Another directive
states

"The Superintendent
should obtain from Naxalite prisoners list of their close relatives and bonafide
legal advisers and send the same to the CID Q branch, get them verified and
keep them in their possession so that the bonafide interviews of Naxalite prisoners
may be conducted in the presence of Q branch representa-tives without delay.
In this connection, he is informed that only persons who are bonafide legal
advisers and whose names are approved by the State CID Q branch should be permitted
to interview the Naxalite priso-ners and that interviews should be conducted
strictly in accordance with these instructions."

These orders have
no legal sanction. As pointed out by K. Chandru in Deccan Herald (May 2, 1981),
"any statutory notification issued under the Prison Act, 1894 and the Prisoners
Act 1900 has to be placed before the legislature. Therefore, the only convenient
method to get over them is to by-pass them." Chandru further writes : "Anguished
by the inhuman treatment meted out to them and that too in utter disregard of
the legal provisions, eight life convicts from Coim-batore Central Prison wrote
to the Madras High Court complaining about the illegalities of these orders."

The court ordered
the chief judicial magistrate, Coimbatore, to inspect the prison. In his report,
the magistrate observed that the cells in which these prisoners are kept in
Block 10 of the jail do not even have windows. Even the century old jail manual
pres-cribes two windows for each cell.

Once a person is
convicted by a criminal court and imprisoned, there can be no discrimination
between prisoners. But Naxalite prisoners are always delibera-tely isolated,
A subtle way of discrimination has been suggested in the 1978 report of the
Jail Reforms Com-mission (Tamil Nadu) headed by the late R.L. Narasim-han. According
to this retired ICS judge, "a political prisoner is one, who for the purpose
of furthering any political cause without any personal benefit, con-travenes
the law and is imprisoned for the same for an offence which has not involved
using force or violence and also the prisoner should by his speech and action
have been thorough out non-violent.. .

Apart from this
observation, the Commission has also suggested that "Naxalites" and
anyone arrested in connection with student and kisan agitations should be segregated
and not permitted to mix with ordinary criminals because of the danger of their
attempting to influence them with their ideas.

Finally, it is
not only conditions within prisons that affect the life and conditions of Naxalite
prisoners; their relationship with their close relatives is purpose-fully kept
to a rude minimum by constant transfers from one jail to another. Poor relatives
must spend whatever money they have to struggle to earn (with the men folk in
prison, this is difficult enough as it is) tra-velling long distances to meet
the prisoners. Kalia-perumal's affidavit goes into some detail about this major
instrument of harassment:

"Ever since
we were all arrested, the State machi-nery tried its best to keep us separate
from one ano-ther. After my arrest I should have been lodged in a jail nearest
to my native place within the jurisdiction of the Sub Magistrate's court at
Vridhachalam or at the District Headquarters Jail at Cuddalore which is 80 kms.
from my native place. - But I was detained in Madras Central prison which is
200 kms. from my native place. The other five co-accused were detained in the
Central Prison at Trichy which is 110 kms. from my native place. "Myself
and Valluran, after receiving death sentences were detained in C:ntral Prison,
Trichy and the rest were sent to Vellore Central Prison. When Valluvan's sentence
was modified into that of imprison-ment for life, he was separated from me,
not permitted to see me and subsequently transferred to Vellore Cen-tral Prison
in 1972. In 1975 he was transferred to Palayamkottai Central Prison which is
at a distance of 430 kms. On 6th June 1978 he was transferred from Palayamkottai
to Madras Central Prison.

"One can imagine
the hardships my wife has had to undergo all these years to go from one prison
to ano-ther to see myself, my sons, my brother, my sister-in-law and my relatives
who were all separated and kept in separate jails at far away places. She and
the womenfolk of my relatives have undergone indescrib-able woes. My wife has
to leave behind in my village our three grown up daughters to see us in the
prison. How many times she was simply refused permission and/or unnecessarily
teased before she was finally given permission. Has the epoch of Ramrajya dawned
in our land where women can freely move about ?"

The intervention
of the Supreme Court has already brought some relief to these prisoners. Ms.
Anantha-nayagi was operated on for cataract and will soon be fitted with glasses.
(She is 63 years old and therefore being illegally detained).. Valluvan has
been operated for piles. Thannasi had been sent for a check-up to an eminent
cardiologist in Madras (who in his report to the Court suggested that the ailment
was a "conge-nital" defect and not brought about within prison walls
by repeated beatings and torture : he volunteered this information unasked).

When last seen
by this writer in the third week of November, these prisoners ware able to meet
freely with friends and relatives, were cheerful and able to converse without
a police official listening on. Than-nasi remains the worst off physically,
is weak, thin and almost with no strength in his limbs. Since he is due to be
released in six months, the authorities are callo-usly delaying a necessary
heart operation, for should they default, he will have to foot the bill on his
own after his release. Valluvan was taken to the hospital and chained to his
bed. There is photographic evidence of this.

Of course, besides
the Kaliaperumal family there are many other Naxalite prisoners that could do
with some critical intervention from the outside, and one hopes that our Tamil
Nadu activists will start work on these cases soon